Rabat – With 30 percent of Maroc Telecom’s ownership belonging to the Moroccan government, the company has long been heavily influenced by the state. This is despite the fact that 53 percent of the company is owned by Etisalat, a company based in the United Arab Emirates.
However, Maroc Telecom has recently announced that the Moroccan government would be selling up to eight percent of its stake in the telecom operator, thus reducing the Moroccan government’s ownership to 22 percent.
The company has also announced that within the next few weeks, a public offering for the stakes will be put up on the Casablanca Stock Exchange.
In 2018, the Moroccan government suffered from a significant budget deficit of 3.8 percent of the country’s GDP, with this number expected to hit 3.7 percent of GDP for 2019.
As a result, the government has planned to pursue a government privatization initiative to increase the state budget by up to $633 million by 2019, in an attempt to lower the deficit to 3.3 percent.
The sale of Maroc Telecom shares is only the first part of this initiative, with the government also planning to sell the La Mamounia hotel in Marrakech and the Tahaddart power plant in northern Morocco.
